Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics
Speaker 1: where we discuss the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds. And Mark Robinson says he will not
Speaker 1: drop out of the North Carolina governor's race, and every
Speaker 1: Democrat says, thank you, Mark Robinson. We have such a
Speaker 1: great show for you. Today, Illinois Governor JB. Pritzker stops
Speaker 1: by to talk to us about his progressive governing despite
Speaker 1: being very, very rich. Then we'll talk to Nebraska independent
Speaker 1: candidate for Senate, the one the only, Dan Osborne, about
Speaker 1: his run. But first we have the former senator and
Speaker 1: a host of the Al Franken podcast, your friend of mine,
Speaker 1: the one the Only Al Franken. Welcome back, my friend,
Speaker 1: Al Franken.
Speaker 2: Thank you, my friend.
Speaker 1: We're friends. Listen. I cannot believe that House Republicans are
Speaker 1: eleven days from a government shutdown. I mean we are
Speaker 1: about like pole are going to be voting, or they
Speaker 1: are voting. I think some states have already started voting.
Speaker 1: But Republicans have betrayed all conventional wisdom and have decided
Speaker 1: that this is the play.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I can't believe the Senate will go along with that,
Speaker 2: but the House they supposed could do it. Either House
Speaker 2: can do it, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's so funny because it's like it
Speaker 1: is preposterous and ridiculous. Basically, they had a cr that
Speaker 1: had in it the Save Act, which prevents non citizens
Speaker 1: from voting in federal elections. By the way, non citizens
Speaker 1: cannot vote.
Speaker 2: Cannot vote anyway.
Speaker 1: So fine, fine, right, why not? But he can't pass it.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite things about Mike Johnson is that
Speaker 1: he said, well, we're just going to take it up
Speaker 1: anyway because we may be able to pass it. And
Speaker 1: I was listening to one of those inside the podcast
Speaker 1: by you know, Congressional Reporting Organization, and they were talking
Speaker 1: about how actually they have never seen anyone be a
Speaker 1: Speaker of the House and up bills. They were pretty
Speaker 1: sure we're going to face right like Pelosi.
Speaker 2: She never did that, right, I mean, you.
Speaker 1: Just wouldn't do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you make account and if you're going to lose,
Speaker 2: you don't put it up. But he's done it routinely,
Speaker 2: hasn't he?
Speaker 1: So is this a new error of institutionalized in competence?
Speaker 2: I guess. So this speaks to the importance of electing
Speaker 2: Democratic House members. Yeah, I got one fifteenth District of
Speaker 2: New York. Josh Riley, who was my judiciary council is
Speaker 2: running and against a guy named Mellinary. We need to
Speaker 2: be Mollinary.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So this is a really good segue into what's
Speaker 1: happening right now because for Democrats to control the House
Speaker 1: of Representatives, that road runs right through Long.
Speaker 2: Island, Long Island, and upstate New York. Yeah, in California.
Speaker 1: And that is why Donald Trump went to Long Island
Speaker 1: last night to have a rally.
Speaker 2: See, he's selfless. He's selfless because he knows he can't
Speaker 2: win New York and yet he wanted to help the
Speaker 2: House members. What a guy.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I was struck by with
Speaker 1: this Long Island rally was that picketing outside of the
Speaker 1: Long Island rally were a group with a sign. They
Speaker 1: were a group that has been routinely targeted by Trump.
Speaker 1: They are Haitian Americans, and the sign said we don't
Speaker 1: eat pets, but we do vote.
Speaker 2: That's very pointed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what could they be referring.
Speaker 2: To Springfield, which I accidentally call Simpsons, Ohio every once
Speaker 2: in a while, but Springfield, Ohio. You know, it's interesting.
Speaker 2: I have a story about a town in Minnesota that
Speaker 2: kind of parallels Springfield a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yes, let's hear it.
Speaker 2: It's Wilmer, Minnesota, which is the county seat of Candy
Speaker 2: Yohigh County. It's like in the south central part of
Speaker 2: the state. Minnesota is the number one producer of turkeys,
Speaker 2: and Wilmer is the county seat of Candy Yoha County,
Speaker 2: and they have a Jeneo packing plant there, so they've
Speaker 2: attracted a lot of immigrants over the years. About I
Speaker 2: don't know, thirty percent of the town is Hispanic and
Speaker 2: about fifteen percent is Somali. And one of their high
Speaker 2: school juniors, Muna Abdulahi, became one of our pages a
Speaker 2: Senate pages when I was in the Senate and we
Speaker 2: picked her. My office picked her. And I remember seeing
Speaker 2: her the first time when a new class came in
Speaker 2: and she was wearing a key job and I said,
Speaker 2: you look like a Minnesotan and she I don't think
Speaker 2: she laughed her that she smiled. But I got to
Speaker 2: know Muna as she is a fabulous woman. And then
Speaker 2: a year later she was one of the commencement speakers.
Speaker 2: Was chosen to be one of the commencement speakers. So
Speaker 2: I said I'd introduce her, and I went to Wilmer
Speaker 2: and it was the most beautiful ceremony I'd ever seen,
Speaker 2: including my wedding, which wasn't much of it. We just
Speaker 2: went to Firk's office, so I wasn't much anyway. So
Speaker 2: so there were I looked at. They had every name
Speaker 2: of every graduate and there were two hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: six of them, and about fifteen percent were of German
Speaker 2: or Norwegian extraction, about thirty percent Hispanic, and about fifteen
Speaker 2: percent Somali. And then they started pumping circumstances and their
Speaker 2: caps and gowns, and it was led by Muna because
Speaker 2: her last name is Abdulahi, so she was first alphabet.
Speaker 2: And they go down the center aisle and she's holding
Speaker 2: hands with one of the Carlson twins. I think Mary Carlson,
Speaker 2: who goes so when they get to the fund, she
Speaker 2: goes off. Carlson goes to the left on the lah
Speaker 2: he goes to the right. It was very beautiful. All
Speaker 2: the kids hold held hands. These are this community is
Speaker 2: just totally together. They had three class speakers. One was
Speaker 2: the valedictorian, who was a girl who came from Peru.
Speaker 2: Her family came from Peru, and one was Tate Hofland,
Speaker 2: the class president, who was had Norwegian and half German,
Speaker 2: and another was was Muna. And when Muna got up
Speaker 2: to she she gave this speech and got this standio based.
Speaker 2: So then they were canning out to the ployas and
Speaker 2: they said, okay, everybody, nobody stand or nobody applaud because
Speaker 2: we got a whole class to get through, so we
Speaker 2: don't want So Muna was first because she was her alphabetically,
Speaker 2: so Muna Aduwahi and they all started cheering, and the
Speaker 2: parents and family were in the bleachers and they started
Speaker 2: stomping on the bleachers from Muna, and they did this
Speaker 2: for every frigging kid. This town was sewed together, and
Speaker 2: the town worked because of the immigration, because the Geneo
Speaker 2: factory brought the Hispanic population there and brought this the
Speaker 2: Somali population there. And Springfield is a different kind of town.
Speaker 2: It is an agricultural town. But Muna, so I went.
Speaker 2: I went to an election day that year. It was sixteen,
Speaker 2: and I saw her on the campus. I saw moving
Speaker 2: at the University of Minnesota. I was going to speak
Speaker 2: at the Democratic headquarters on campus and came up to
Speaker 2: me and told me her sister had been elected Homecoming Queen.
Speaker 2: That's America, you know. Yeah, I'm sorry. That story always
Speaker 2: kind of breaks me up.
Speaker 1: It is, and I mean, there was a great opinion
Speaker 1: piece in the Washington Post yesterday from Edwig Donticot, who
Speaker 1: is an incredible Haitian American writer and a friend of
Speaker 1: my mother's who went to Barnard and has won many
Speaker 1: prizes and is really a rock star in the business.
Speaker 1: And she talked about how what it was like growing
Speaker 1: up as a Haitian immigrant in America and how her
Speaker 1: teachers used to keep the Haitian kids late so they
Speaker 1: didn't get beat up when they left school, and you know,
Speaker 1: just the kind of you know, they endured all the
Speaker 1: violence in Haiti and then they come to this country
Speaker 1: and Republicans and some other people are just terrible to them,
Speaker 1: and it just really hurt my heart because my great
Speaker 1: grandparents came to this country and had the same experience.
Speaker 1: And now we're in twenty twenty four and we have
Speaker 1: to continue to live like this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're almost all immigrants except for American Indians.
Speaker 1: And enslaved, you know, brought over to slaves.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my grandparents came over and Jews when we first
Speaker 2: came over, we're rejuiced against. But according to the mayor
Speaker 2: and everybody, this town was working. Yeah, until this happened,
Speaker 2: until jd Vance spread a rumor that he knew wasn't true.
Speaker 1: The mayor, the governor Dwine and also shut it down.
Speaker 1: And you'll remember Dwine ran twenty points ahead of jd
Speaker 1: Vance in Ohio. So it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's just a terrible thing to have to
Speaker 1: watch this happen just because Donald Trump wants to change
Speaker 1: the conversation from his terrible debate performance and his anemic.
Speaker 1: You know, his ideas of a plan was it ideas
Speaker 1: of a plan for.
Speaker 2: Healthcare, which will come out two weeks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, two weeks. So it is kind of amazing. But
Speaker 1: I want to go back to this Republican's inability to
Speaker 1: govern because one of the things the Senate is doing,
Speaker 1: and I think Trick Schumer has been smart about this,
Speaker 1: is that they are again. Yesterday they did this IVF
Speaker 1: codifying IVF Bill and Tom Cotton. Again Republicans voted against it.
Speaker 1: Tom Cotton went on CNN Caitln Collins told her that
Speaker 1: he was absolutely not going to vote for it because
Speaker 1: he doesn't you know, doesn't want to codify IVF.
Speaker 2: He believes that a fertilized egg is a human being
Speaker 2: frozen for a live's egg.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow, But I can't believe that fifty of them or
Speaker 2: what was it, forty nine of them? Believe that forty
Speaker 2: nine US senators A lot.
Speaker 1: Of them didn't show up. I think there's some amount
Speaker 1: show up for that vote.
Speaker 2: I know Van Vance didn't show up.
Speaker 1: Mister IVF did not show up. Yeah, I don't know
Speaker 1: who else didn't show up.
Speaker 2: Well, Trump says he wants to pay for everyone's IVF
Speaker 2: if insurance or the government doesn't pay for it. I mean,
Speaker 2: he wants the government to pay for it.
Speaker 1: That's right, a government free IVF for every man, woman
Speaker 1: and child.
Speaker 2: So how come he didn't tell his centators vote the
Speaker 2: right way?
Speaker 1: It's ironic, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Because it's iroqnic Yess.
Speaker 1: It's almost as if the guy is completely full of shit. No,
Speaker 1: but I mean, this is the point in the election
Speaker 1: cycle where Trump is basically saying anything he can to
Speaker 1: get elected.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in including all kinds of stuff about immigrants and
Speaker 2: also threatening election officials that he'll put them in jail
Speaker 2: after he wins.
Speaker 1: And yeah, they don't do the right thing.
Speaker 2: It's so bizarre if that works. But I suppose if
Speaker 2: he's on immigration, he feels like he's winning on that ground.
Speaker 2: I don't know why he didn't tell his guys or
Speaker 2: his senators to vote for the IVF. But he's puzzling
Speaker 2: to me in one way and puzzling in another way,
Speaker 2: which is nothing He does really surprise me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the things that I think is interesting
Speaker 1: is like he's just redoing the playbook again and again.
Speaker 1: So you know, like one of the things he was
Speaker 1: talking about yesterday, he was saying, what do you have
Speaker 1: to lose? That's something he said in twenty sixteen, right,
Speaker 1: I mean he even said, now he's saying that he's
Speaker 1: going to lower people's insurance. I don't know how he
Speaker 1: would do that. He's say, it's lead the guy doesn't
Speaker 1: believe in climate change is going to address the reason
Speaker 1: that insurance is so high.
Speaker 2: Oh, I see, it's insurance on your house which is
Speaker 2: near body of water.
Speaker 1: Right. But then and he's even said, I mean, he's
Speaker 1: just sort of throwing stuff out there to see. He
Speaker 1: said he would undo the salt deduction. So you'll remember
Speaker 1: that one of the things that Republicans did in this
Speaker 1: massive tax cut was maked so that you couldn't aduct
Speaker 1: state and local taxes. The reason that did this was
Speaker 1: because they wanted to punish states that had high state
Speaker 1: taxes like.
Speaker 2: New York and California and blue states. Blue states states.
Speaker 1: Where they spend money on education and social programs, and
Speaker 1: so the idea here and states who's vote.
Speaker 2: They can't lose anyway, right, they're not because all those
Speaker 2: states with eye taxation are blue states and they are
Speaker 2: BLEU anyway. So yeah, really nifty way of punishing blue states.
Speaker 1: But if blue states were smart, they would be like, wow,
Speaker 1: these Republicans did this to us. Perhaps we shouldn't give
Speaker 1: them the Congress.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, we're all paying a lot of attention to
Speaker 2: the presidential race.
Speaker 1: But the House.
Speaker 2: The House is so important. It's you know, the House.
Speaker 2: It's going to be hard for us to hold the Senate.
Speaker 2: It's possible. Tester has to win, and I think if
Speaker 2: he wins, I think we hold it. Yeah, but the House,
Speaker 2: and you've covered the House great with their record, it
Speaker 2: seems like we should be able to flip this, but
Speaker 2: that doesn't always follow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean in twenty two, really what happened was
Speaker 1: a very rich businessman focused on those five House seats
Speaker 1: in New York. A guy called Ronald Lauder, who was
Speaker 1: a good friend of Trump's, has a lot of money,
Speaker 1: just poured money into those congressional seats and was able
Speaker 1: to flip them. And really he elected people who pretended
Speaker 1: to be moderate. So I'm thinking about Mike Lawler with
Speaker 1: the bdi's.
Speaker 2: I remember that was Lee Zelden ran for governor right,
Speaker 2: and he poured a lot of money into his race too. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's funny when when Tim Walls was picked, I was
Speaker 2: on CNN and Zelden was for some reason one of
Speaker 2: the questioners. They said, Danny's say, I mean, isn't it
Speaker 2: so that because he didn't pick Shapiro or she didn't
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Yeah, Dona didn't pick Shapiro. That does that
Speaker 2: mean that she's Annie Semittic.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's such a like CNN moment you have, like,
Speaker 1: what are the most far right members of the Republican
Speaker 1: Party who just happens to be from Long Island but
Speaker 1: his best he's with Don Junior and You're like, is
Speaker 1: she anti Semitic?
Speaker 2: I mean, and I should have answered maybe something different,
Speaker 2: but I basically said, you know, there's all kinds of
Speaker 2: reasons that you pick her vice president, like do you
Speaker 2: like him or do you have a connection with Walls
Speaker 2: has been a great bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But also the other thing is she's married to
Speaker 1: a Jew. Like you to marry a Jew if you're
Speaker 1: anti Semitic, that's just how it works.
Speaker 2: I don't know, my wife is anti Semitic.
Speaker 1: Sometimes my husband is Jewish. So but I mean, it is,
Speaker 1: you know, so insane. I mean, I have to say,
Speaker 1: like this anti Semitic thing. I mean, you and I
Speaker 1: are both Jewish. We have there's a long history of
Speaker 1: Jews voting for Democrats and because Democrats have good ideas.
Speaker 1: But it just is crazy to me to watch Donald
Speaker 1: Trum make this dumb, really kind of disgusting play for Jews,
Speaker 1: saying that somehow he is not an anti semit despite
Speaker 1: the fact that he aligns with far right nationalists on
Speaker 1: almost everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he kind of well, you know, he kind of
Speaker 2: has it both ways. So he's you know, then Yahoo's
Speaker 2: biggest supporter now, I guess, although they'll say he has
Speaker 2: problems with nen Yahoo, but well it's he is doubling
Speaker 2: down on getting Jewish voters, and I don't know why
Speaker 2: Jews would vote for him. I think that Biden has
Speaker 2: shown that he has tried to support Israel all the
Speaker 2: way through. I think Michigan is the one state that
Speaker 2: where that might be and put big issue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just interesting to watch this kind of craven
Speaker 1: ploy and he'll just do whatever today actually or tomorrow,
Speaker 1: Trump is going to do something with Mary and Adelson
Speaker 1: about about stopping anti Semitism. Guy who had dinner with
Speaker 1: Nick Fuentes, m with know Holocaust denial Nick Fuentas.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, consistency, it was not his strong point.
Speaker 1: My favorite moment is he hates smoking, but he started
Speaker 1: taking money from tobacco companies.
Speaker 2: Oh of course he may hate smoking, but you like
Speaker 2: smoking money.
Speaker 1: It's true. He certainly does like smoking money. And a
Speaker 1: lot of that money is going, well, we don't know
Speaker 1: where it's going, but I would assume a lot of
Speaker 1: it's going to lawyers.
Speaker 2: Is this like the cigarette pack because they have a pack.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I read the nicotine pack.
Speaker 1: It's big oil. You'll remember he also is steeing a
Speaker 1: lot of money from big oil.
Speaker 2: Oh. He reached directly out to them and directly said,
Speaker 2: give me a billion dollars with it a billion.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a billion dollars, and I'll save you billion dollars.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I'll save you more than a billion.
Speaker 1: Dollars right in regulation.
Speaker 2: That's the lay to run. That's very effective, canfecting.
Speaker 1: The thing about Trump that I appreciate is that he
Speaker 1: really is the quid pro quo thing is kind of
Speaker 1: his metie. Well, yes, got to drop a fancy word
Speaker 1: in there, but it is true.
Speaker 2: Well, quid pro quo. So you went from Latin, the
Speaker 2: metier is French. I take it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, quid pro yo. I mean that's what Trump does.
Speaker 1: It's quid pro quo and you got impeached for it once.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, threatening not to withhold aid is being attacked
Speaker 2: by Russia.
Speaker 1: I have one last question for you. You know, Mitch McConnell,
Speaker 1: or have known him a little as much as anyone
Speaker 1: under No, Mitch, you think he regrets not letting the
Speaker 1: Republicans find him guilty and preventing Trump from running again.
Speaker 2: I think he does. I don't know if he feels
Speaker 2: guilty now.
Speaker 1: I don't think he feels guilty. I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: going to go that far, but I think he regrets it.
Speaker 1: Just from an electoral standpoint, I.
Speaker 2: Think he does. I mean, they had a chance to
Speaker 2: end this endate finally. Of course, if they had convicted him,
Speaker 2: then he wouldn't have been able to run and we've
Speaker 2: been a whole different world right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so interesting.
Speaker 2: And that was a terrible, terrible speech because there's no doubt.
Speaker 2: But you know, President, it's responsible whatever this, you know.
Speaker 2: And then he did that butt yeah and turned and
Speaker 2: said he can be tried and you know, tried and
Speaker 2: by the courts. He didn't know about the immunity clause
Speaker 2: or the immunity judgment. Yeah, boy boy, the court is
Speaker 2: covering his ass and.
Speaker 1: He really hard. I shouldn't laugh because the Supreme.
Speaker 2: Court is Oh I love your laugh. That's one of
Speaker 2: my favorite things about you.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you. But the Supreme Court is set it
Speaker 1: up to be just a complete an auto chateau on
Speaker 1: every measure.
Speaker 2: Well, I hope this doesn't somehow get the Spring Court.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's I think a lot of anxiety for those
Speaker 1: people who believe in small d democracy.
Speaker 2: Well, if they you know if they don't certify the state,
Speaker 2: you know, the local boards are refusing to certify that,
Speaker 2: we could have chaos. Yeah, and there's one scenario where
Speaker 2: it goes to the courts.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Thank you so much for joining us, Al Frank
Speaker 1: and I hope you'll come back.
Speaker 2: I absolutely will. Thank you for having me so often.
Speaker 3: We have even more tour dates for you. Did you
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Speaker 3: Unusual dot bio.
Speaker 1: JB. Pritzker is a liberal hero and the governor of Illinois.
Speaker 1: So welcome to Fast Politics. Governor Pritzker, Molly, great to
Speaker 1: be with you, very excited to have you. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you know this, but somehow you have become an icon
Speaker 1: of the left.
Speaker 4: Well you say that with some surprise.
Speaker 1: Well, in my mind as someone who's covered democratic politics,
Speaker 1: well you know, there was a certain kind of hostility
Speaker 1: towards people who came from enormous wealth, and you saw
Speaker 1: that with Bloomberg. But for some reason you have become
Speaker 1: a sort of icon of like leftist politics. And it's
Speaker 1: just I think it's policy related. But what do you
Speaker 1: think it is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, I think that's right. I mean, I you know,
Speaker 4: when I ran for governor in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen,
Speaker 4: you can imagine that, you know, nobody was looking for
Speaker 4: at that moment, when we had a billionaire governor, Republican
Speaker 4: governor of Illinois who was failing, and we had we
Speaker 4: had a supposedly billionaire president, Donald Trump, who was failing,
Speaker 4: and you know, and so you can imagine that we're
Speaker 4: running into democratic primary, people are like, do we really
Speaker 4: want to have, you know, a wealthy guy as our representative,
Speaker 4: our nominee. And so I spent you know, a year
Speaker 4: on the campaign trail answering that question and talking to
Speaker 4: people about what I had done in my life and
Speaker 4: what I leave And you know, I'm a pragmatic progressive
Speaker 4: for lack of a better term, but you know, I'm
Speaker 4: a progressive, and you know, and I think there were
Speaker 4: people I won the primary. There were six people in
Speaker 4: the primary. I got forty five percent of the vote,
Speaker 4: and I think people there were still doubters even going
Speaker 4: into the general election. They pulled the lever for me,
Speaker 4: you know, in the November election in twenty eighteen. But
Speaker 4: I think some thought, well, I don't know if this
Speaker 4: guy's really what I'm looking for. So I knew that
Speaker 4: I had to prove to people who I am by
Speaker 4: actually effectuating the policies that I was advocating. And that meant,
Speaker 4: you know, things like, well, the very first bill that
Speaker 4: I pushed through and signed was raising the minimum wage
Speaker 4: from eight dollars to twenty five cents to fifteen dollars.
Speaker 4: You know, we passed a massive infrastructure bill. I stood
Speaker 4: up for workers' rights. In fact, my first day on
Speaker 4: the job, I signed a series of executive orders to
Speaker 4: protect workers. And then don't forget that we were, you know,
Speaker 4: battling Donald Trump in many ways, and so, you know,
Speaker 4: standing up for you know, Donald Trump and pulled the
Speaker 4: country out of the Crick Parish Climate Accords.
Speaker 1: And yeah, so.
Speaker 4: We in Illinois and I pledged as governor that in Illinois,
Speaker 4: we're going to live by those Parish climate accords. And
Speaker 4: so we joined the US Climate Alliance, and then I
Speaker 4: helped to pass the probably the most comprehensive climate action
Speaker 4: bill in the country. So yeah, I mean I had
Speaker 4: to prove So that's the long winded answer to your
Speaker 4: short question. I had to prove who I really am,
Speaker 4: and I think I've consistently done that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's an underwritten story because nobody writes
Speaker 1: about policy, because why would they. But we are seeing
Speaker 1: a number of democratic governor's past policy, you know, like,
Speaker 1: for example, the case against Governor Walls was that he
Speaker 1: was too progressive, but he had passed a lot of
Speaker 1: the same policy that you had, and a lot of
Speaker 1: the same policy that Josh Shapiro had, Right, I mean,
Speaker 1: these are these sort of bold democratic policy positions which
Speaker 1: shouldn't be so bold.
Speaker 4: I'll be a little braggadocious and say I did it
Speaker 4: before all of them, and they didn't have to be clear,
Speaker 4: at least in actually in all three of those states,
Speaker 4: they didn't have a democratic legislature to work with, so
Speaker 4: you know, they wanted to get it done. But I
Speaker 4: have to say I helped all three of those people
Speaker 4: running for governor when they ran, and also in the
Speaker 4: case of Whitmer and Walls when they ran for reelection
Speaker 4: as well as helped to win the legislatures in their
Speaker 4: states so that they could effectuate these things too. And
Speaker 4: so we have this great camaraderie and cadre of democratic
Speaker 4: governors including Andy Basher, who really has it tough in
Speaker 4: Kentucky and do'f at Tony Evers people leave him out.
Speaker 4: But anyway, Yeah, so I think we have this great
Speaker 4: cadre of politicians who have lived up to their word
Speaker 4: and fought hard to get things done and have made
Speaker 4: real change here in the center of the country.
Speaker 1: I think of free breakfasts for school kids read lunches,
Speaker 1: that kind of you know, feeding hungry children as one
Speaker 1: of these policies too. Where is that sort of part
Speaker 1: of the policy portfolio too?
Speaker 4: Well, of course, I mean, you know, one of the
Speaker 4: early policies that I've pushed, you know, universal childcare, universal preschool,
Speaker 4: and of course feeding school breakfast. You know, that is
Speaker 4: perhaps even more important than school lunch, I might add,
Speaker 4: just because so many kids come to school hungry and
Speaker 4: for the first half of the day before they even
Speaker 4: get to lunch, you know, they're sitting in class, their
Speaker 4: stomachs are grumbling. You know, the science has proven that
Speaker 4: it's hard for them to learn. Their brains aren't really
Speaker 4: active if they're not nourished. And by the way, these
Speaker 4: are not liberal policy, you know, I really believe these
Speaker 4: are not liberal. These are just common sense policies, and
Speaker 4: it's the result of science that we know that. You know,
Speaker 4: the earlier you can, you know, provide childhood development programs,
Speaker 4: the better off these kids are. That most of the
Speaker 4: brain development that occurs for every child starts, you know,
Speaker 4: the most of it occurs before they reach the age
Speaker 4: of six. And so if you don't nourish that, if
Speaker 4: you don't assist in that and help parents, by the way,
Speaker 4: not just in preschool, but before that, you know, you're
Speaker 4: going to have kids whose lives, you know, in trauma,
Speaker 4: are going to lead to underdevelopment of their brains. And
Speaker 4: of course development occurs of your brain till you're in
Speaker 4: your early twenties and then you know, now, of course
Speaker 4: I'm at an age where my brain is deteriorating.
Speaker 1: Who among us you were sort of in this vetted
Speaker 1: group for vice president? I have heard smarter podcasters. Then
Speaker 1: I push the people who were in that group to
Speaker 1: sort of talk about it. What was your feeling about that,
Speaker 1: and would you have wanted to do it, and sort
Speaker 1: of you know, did you want that?
Speaker 4: Well, I think they asked all of us at the
Speaker 4: very front end, you know, we'd like to consider you
Speaker 4: and put you through this process is it's something you'd
Speaker 4: be willing to do. And so I don't think there
Speaker 4: was anybody that was being vetted that it hadn't said
Speaker 4: yes to that first question. But then you know that
Speaker 4: the process itself is you know, even though in that
Speaker 4: normal year where we're not switching out nominees, you know,
Speaker 4: in the middle of the summer. I've talked to Tammy Duckworth,
Speaker 4: who was considered in twenty twenty for Joe Biden's running mate,
Speaker 4: and Senator Duckworth here from Illinois. You know, it told me,
Speaker 4: you know, it was a three four five month process,
Speaker 4: and she had every question you could imagine, and she said,
Speaker 4: you got to expect that, well, this was more like
Speaker 4: a ten day process, and so you know it was
Speaker 4: some days we're hours and hours of you know, sitting
Speaker 4: and talking to this committee of folks who were helping
Speaker 4: the vice president get through the group of us. And
Speaker 4: I didn't talk to any of the others during the process,
Speaker 4: but I can say, at least for me, it was
Speaker 4: you know, the hardest part was it involves your family,
Speaker 4: and so you know, you're going to your spouse and
Speaker 4: your children. In my case, they're young adult children in
Speaker 4: college and saying like, you know, hey, can you hand
Speaker 4: me the keys to your social media? And you can imagine,
Speaker 4: you know, the reaction that you get. It's even if
Speaker 4: you have nothing in there that would be problematic. You
Speaker 4: can imagine my son and daughter kind of saying like, well,
Speaker 4: that's a real invasion of my desrocracy. You know, I'm
Speaker 4: not the one who's being vetted. It's you. So anyway,
Speaker 4: but they were, you know, they were absolutely cooperative and
Speaker 4: willing and cheering me on. But yeah, so the process
Speaker 4: was ruling in it for ten days. I can't imagine
Speaker 4: what three or four months would be like. I mean,
Speaker 4: it was flattering, you know, because I kind of figured, well,
Speaker 4: at some point, you know, in the ten days, they're
Speaker 4: going to call me and say, listen, you know, thanks
Speaker 4: but no thanks or or thanks, but we've got our
Speaker 4: top two and you're not one of them. To be honest,
Speaker 4: I mean, this thing for me went all the way through,
Speaker 4: you know, the Sunday before the announcement, which was a
Speaker 4: day when on television they were saying, you know, well
Speaker 4: we think it's probably you know, either Tim Walls or
Speaker 4: Josh Shapiro, and you know, and yet they were still
Speaker 4: asking me questions and vetting me. So anyway, I was
Speaker 4: honored to be part of it. And honestly, I you know,
Speaker 4: it is so important that we win that I wanted to,
Speaker 4: you know, do anything, and I still believe, you know,
Speaker 4: I will do anything that it takes to campaign for
Speaker 4: and to help Vice President Kamla Heris become Madam president.
Speaker 1: There was something that happened this summer. There was so
Speaker 1: much anxiety on the part of Democrats and on the
Speaker 1: part of all people who believe in small d democracy
Speaker 1: about this ticket changeover. But it really has gone as
Speaker 1: well as anything could ever go, right.
Speaker 4: I can't remember. I mean, I of course, you know,
Speaker 4: when Barack Obama was running, and it was the summer
Speaker 4: of twenty oh eight, I guess I felt about the
Speaker 4: same way, which was we can win. And you know,
Speaker 4: John McCain of course was the opposition at the time.
Speaker 4: But the polls didn't show that Barack Obama was going
Speaker 4: to you know, run away with it or or have
Speaker 4: an easy time. And so I feel very much like
Speaker 4: this was like that, except for one other thing, which is,
Speaker 4: you know, Kamala Harris had not gone through the whole
Speaker 4: process of the primaries, so I think there were people
Speaker 4: who felt like they didn't know her as well. You know,
Speaker 4: going through primaries is awful. Having been through a couple,
Speaker 4: you know, when you're kind of fighting your friends, but
Speaker 4: you're out there in the public and people are seeing
Speaker 4: all your warts and all your you know, the things
Speaker 4: you have to offer. So for Kamala Harris, I think
Speaker 4: that and for all of us, you know, it was
Speaker 4: like it was a bit of a surprise to put
Speaker 4: her forward, not that she wasn't the right person, it
Speaker 4: was just like, you know, we all thought we were
Speaker 4: going to fight a battle for Joe Biden, and now
Speaker 4: we're in a battle for Kamala Harris. But I have
Speaker 4: to say, the excitement level, oh my goodness, the electricity.
Speaker 4: And I I hate to put it on my children
Speaker 4: as the example, but no, but it's good. They're nineteen
Speaker 4: and twenty one, and you know they're Democrat and they
Speaker 4: you know, they would say to me, you know, every
Speaker 4: time we'd have the news on and they'd see Joe Biden,
Speaker 4: they look at me and say, you know, I know
Speaker 4: we have to be Donald Trump, but Joe Biden's just
Speaker 4: too old. And yeah, and I would say, but he
Speaker 4: stands for all the things you care about, and even
Speaker 4: if you think he's old, you know, he's got a
Speaker 4: lot of experience.
Speaker 2: And so on.
Speaker 4: And they just keep looking at me and saying, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's hard to get excited about that. And so, you know,
Speaker 4: and I was all in, you know, for for Joe
Speaker 4: Biden's So when it became Coambla Harris, I mean like,
Speaker 4: not twenty four forty eight hours later, you know, my
Speaker 4: children are like, you know, let's go, you know, you know,
Speaker 4: they're ready to knock on doors. No.
Speaker 1: I mean, I have a twenty year old who's in college,
Speaker 1: and I was like, you have to get everybody to
Speaker 1: vote and make sure that people vote. And he goes
Speaker 1: to a very small kind of niche place. I don't
Speaker 1: even want to say where because I'm so paranoid, but
Speaker 1: he was like, I'm having real trouble getting people at
Speaker 1: all interested in this candidate.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Both my kids are in swing states in college. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and you know, Illinois. They're they were registered in Illinois
Speaker 4: because you know, because you know, that's where they turned eighteen,
Speaker 4: but they have both said they're reregistering because now they
Speaker 4: live in those states most of the year in college.
Speaker 4: So I didn't. They've you know, joined the local canvassing effort.
Speaker 4: But both of them are on campus, you know, talking
Speaker 4: to their friends about voting for Kamala Harris.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I also think Tim Walls has been really good
Speaker 1: at speaking to younger people too. Okay, so here's my question.
Speaker 1: You have this family of service too, because your sister
Speaker 1: served in the Obama administration. We are right now in
Speaker 1: a news cycle filled with a lot of very wealthy
Speaker 1: people who have decided that the capital gains tax is
Speaker 1: the most important issue. You that keeping these tax cuts.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know a lot of the reason why
Speaker 1: people are voting for Trump is because these Trump tax
Speaker 1: cuts expire in twenty twenty five. So can you speak
Speaker 1: to sort of why it's just absolutely ethically, you know,
Speaker 1: morally appalling to just vote for a tax cut, and
Speaker 1: sort of more generally, why Democrats are actually good for
Speaker 1: the economy.
Speaker 4: More broadly, it's morally appalling in my view that they're
Speaker 4: good people, good people that are leaning towards or have
Speaker 4: decided to vote for Donald Trump. Yes, there are moments
Speaker 4: when I feel like, how on earth can you possibly
Speaker 4: but you know, they have justified it in their own
Speaker 4: minds that you know he's a terrible person, but the policies.
Speaker 4: And let me also add that you you thank you
Speaker 4: for mentioning that I have a family of service. My
Speaker 4: father was a cryptoanalyst in the Navy in Tokyo or
Speaker 4: actually in Yakoska, Japan, listening to Soviet submarine transmiss My
Speaker 4: mother was an activist in the sixties and seventies for
Speaker 4: reproductive rights at LGBTQ.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So yeah, we were a family that you know, believes
Speaker 4: in public service. So I think the reason it is
Speaker 4: morally repugnant to me the idea of Donald Trump becoming
Speaker 4: president again, and as a governor who had to serve
Speaker 4: at the time when Donald Trump was president, and especially
Speaker 4: when we needed the federal government to step up and
Speaker 4: protect the people of our state. I mean, he acted
Speaker 4: in exactly the opposite ways you would hope and expect
Speaker 4: the federal government to. And when I think about it,
Speaker 4: in my entire life, you know, I now have greater
Speaker 4: appreciation for people like Bob Dole and Jackie and you know,
Speaker 4: and the many p Howard Baker and and you know,
Speaker 4: even George H. W. Bush, because I now, you know,
Speaker 4: have a greater appreciation for their dedication to just some
Speaker 4: basic principles of you know, patriotic ideas about what it
Speaker 4: is to stand up for, you know, the integrity the
Speaker 4: future of our nation and its institutions. I never in
Speaker 4: my life imagined that we would have somebody at the
Speaker 4: top of the Republican ticket who I would oppose on
Speaker 4: anything other than policy ground. To me, this is about
Speaker 4: care and you know their moral compass. That's who Donald
Speaker 4: Trump and JD.
Speaker 2: Vance.
Speaker 4: You know, I think it's so befitting that.
Speaker 2: Donald Trump picked JD.
Speaker 4: Vance, who is just like a mini and and who
Speaker 4: just like Donald Trump in his life. In Jade Vance's life,
Speaker 4: he has simply blown with the wind where whatever got
Speaker 4: him ahead. That's where it was. Remember, Donald Trump at
Speaker 4: one point in his life was a Democrat. At at
Speaker 4: one point in his life, he was pro choice. That's
Speaker 4: not a forgiving statement. That's the point out. You never
Speaker 4: know from one day to the next, when he tells
Speaker 4: you where he stands on something, where he actually stands,
Speaker 4: and that I think is again evidence of a lack
Speaker 4: of a moral compass. So I'm appalled by it all.
Speaker 4: And that's one of the reasons that I fought so
Speaker 4: hard against him in twenty sixteen. You know, I was
Speaker 4: there on election night in twenty sixteen, and I remember
Speaker 4: my wife and I, you know, after seeing all these
Speaker 4: people leave, you know, the Javit Center, saying out loud,
Speaker 4: you know, well, I don't want anything to do with
Speaker 4: politics anymore if Donald Trump can become the president. And
Speaker 4: my wife and I had exactly the opposite thought, which is,
Speaker 4: now we need to do twice as much because it's
Speaker 4: even more dangerous than ever. So, you know, in sixteen
Speaker 4: and twenty and now here at twenty four, I mean
Speaker 4: it's you know, I'm on the road doing everything I
Speaker 4: can to make sure that Donald Trump loses and more
Speaker 4: importantly that this terrific ticket of you know, Kamala Harris
Speaker 4: and Tim Walls. I'm gonna say one more thing about
Speaker 4: Tim Walls. I've gotten to know him as a governor,
Speaker 4: as a fellow Midwestern governor, and you know, of course
Speaker 4: he's the head of the DGA, but he is a
Speaker 4: guy with a big heart, just a genuinely good person.
Speaker 4: And when you contrast that with the other ticket, you know,
Speaker 4: Kambala Harris, Tim Wallas just represents so much of what
Speaker 4: I think we should look for in public service.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So true, you don't have a term limit, so
Speaker 1: you could just be governor of Illinois forever and ever.
Speaker 4: Do you want me to make news here? Is that
Speaker 4: what you're yes? Yes, yeah, thank you for pointing that out.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've never thought of that.
Speaker 2: I have joked.
Speaker 4: That that my wife is my term limits, but not
Speaker 4: to put all that on her. She's been such a
Speaker 4: great partner. Yeah. I mean, I love the job I have,
Speaker 4: and I've said that so many times when people have
Speaker 4: asked me, you know what, you are you going to
Speaker 4: run for president someday or planning to you know, do
Speaker 4: you want to be in somebody's cabinet? You know, I
Speaker 4: really do love the job in the and the big
Speaker 4: improvements we've made here in Illinois, and and the job
Speaker 4: ahead because you know, there's so much more to do.
Speaker 4: So I don't know whether I'll run for re election,
Speaker 4: but I have pointed out to people the fact that
Speaker 4: Illinois is a blue state in everybody's minds. You ought
Speaker 4: to step back and remember that democratic governor has served
Speaker 4: eight years. If I simply finished the term i'm in,
Speaker 4: I will be the longest serving Democratic governor at the
Speaker 4: history of Illinois. So you know, that's for a variety
Speaker 4: of reasons. Sometimes it's you know, illness and death. Sometimes
Speaker 4: you know when they've gone to prison. I hope neither
Speaker 4: one of those happens to me, but you know, it
Speaker 4: still would be an accomplishment simply to finish two terms
Speaker 4: and have I think a solid record of accomplishment here.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Governor Pritzgar, Thank you, Molly. Are you concerned
Speaker 1: about Project twenty twenty five and how awful Trump's second
Speaker 1: term could be? Well, so are we, which is why
Speaker 1: we teamed up with iHeart to make a limited series
Speaker 1: with the experts on what a disaster Project twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five would be for America's future. Right now, we have
Speaker 1: just released the final episode of this five episode series.
Speaker 1: They're all available by looking up Molly Jong Fast Project
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five on YouTube, and if you are more
Speaker 1: of a podcast person and not say a YouTuber, you
Speaker 1: can hit play and put your phone in the lock
Speaker 1: screen and it will play back just like the podcast.
Speaker 1: All five episodes are online now. We need to educate
Speaker 1: Americans on what Trump's second term would or could do
Speaker 1: to this country, so please watch it and spread the word.
Speaker 1: Dan Osborne is an independent candidate for Senate in Nebraska.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Fast Politics, Dan.
Speaker 2: Osborne, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to have you. So this is like
Speaker 1: a super interesting Senate race, and it came to my
Speaker 1: notice like about a month ago. And then there was
Speaker 1: this incredible pull you guys just had which showed you
Speaker 1: at a dead heat with the pretty unpopular woman you're
Speaker 1: running against. Talk to me about why you decided to
Speaker 1: run for Senate in the state of Nebraska.
Speaker 5: Well, I haven't always been a political person. It really
Speaker 5: wasn't until corporate greed came knocking on my door a
Speaker 5: few years ago. I was a present cident BCTGM Local
Speaker 5: fifty G the spell out that's Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and
Speaker 5: Grain Millers Union. I was in what we land under
Speaker 5: the grain miller category. But during COVID, as essential workers,
Speaker 5: we were all working seven days a week, twelve hours
Speaker 5: a day. There's four manufacturing plants under the umbrella of
Speaker 5: our master contract, but as essential workers, we were working
Speaker 5: those hours. At one point in time, fifty percent of
Speaker 5: our workforce was forced quarantine and or sick. But we
Speaker 5: made them record profits. You know, we still kept the
Speaker 5: plants running. At one hundred percent capacity. They went from
Speaker 5: nineteen billion dollars to twenty one billion dollars. The CEO
Speaker 5: gave himself a two million dollar raise, the board enriched themselves,
Speaker 5: the stockholders enriched themselves, and our contract expired that year.
Speaker 5: We figured, you know, it's going to be a no brainer,
Speaker 5: would get a little sliver of the pipe. But instead,
Speaker 5: the first day negotiations, Kellogg set across the table from
Speaker 5: us and they said, we're going to go after your
Speaker 5: health insurance. We're going to go after your cost of
Speaker 5: living wage adjustment, which was our own only form a
Speaker 5: wage increases designed to keep us even with inflation, and
Speaker 5: we know how that's gone. And then they're going to
Speaker 5: implement a permanent two tier wage system with no path
Speaker 5: for a lower tier employee to make it to the
Speaker 5: upper tier. So effectively, eventually everybody's going to be on
Speaker 5: the lower tier. So for me as president, that was
Speaker 5: mycrap moment. There hadn't been a strike in Nebraska since
Speaker 5: nineteen seventy two, so I had to learn what that meant.
Speaker 5: So I did my due diligence leading up to October fifth, midnight,
Speaker 5: you know, setting up picketing schedules and every drumming up
Speaker 5: early support, so we could not come to an agreement.
Speaker 5: It's still my belief today that Kellogg's had no intention
Speaker 5: of coming to an agreement. So we shut down four
Speaker 5: North American plants and we walked off the job to
Speaker 5: reserve our wages and benefits. Certainly one of the hardest
Speaker 5: things I've had to do, take five hundred of my
Speaker 5: friends and their families out into the great unknown, not
Speaker 5: knowing if we're going to have a job at the
Speaker 5: end of it. But we all felt we were on
Speaker 5: the right side of history. So, you know, I was
Speaker 5: able to get Republican congressmans out to the picket line,
Speaker 5: Republican mayor and was able to get him to draft
Speaker 5: a letter or excuse me, Governor, to this CEO, Steve Khlane,
Speaker 5: imploring him to get our people back to work. So
Speaker 5: just a few of the things I did during that
Speaker 5: time to put pressure on Calloggs, you know, and we're
Speaker 5: on strike for seventy seven days, and I remember walking
Speaker 5: back into my manufacturing plan just feeling an enormous sense
Speaker 5: of pride what we were able to accomplish five hundred
Speaker 5: jobs in Nebraska and fifteen hundred around the country, and
Speaker 5: that's why I'm doing this today. I want to continue
Speaker 5: to be a voice for working people because what it
Speaker 5: taught me is if we band together around common causes
Speaker 5: and issues, we can make a change, a real good change,
Speaker 5: positive change in everyday people's lives.
Speaker 1: You're not a Democrat, You're running as an independent. Explain
Speaker 1: to us that decision.
Speaker 5: Well, I've always been a registered independent since the beginning
Speaker 5: when I when I registered to vote. I just have
Speaker 5: an independent spirit. And I know it's handicapped me voting
Speaker 5: in primaries and things like that, but you know, George
Speaker 5: Washington and the framers of the Constitution warned us of
Speaker 5: the two factions, which is the two parties, and what
Speaker 5: it could lead to. And I think we're finding ourselves
Speaker 5: there today in the form of also, well, corporations to me,
Speaker 5: are you know, in geting the money out of influencing elections,
Speaker 5: corporate money ending citizens united? So those things are extremely
Speaker 5: important to me because until well, I'll preface that with
Speaker 5: we're being different. We're not taking any corporate money. I
Speaker 5: don't want to be beholden to a corporation. I want
Speaker 5: to be beholden to the people in Nebraska again, like
Speaker 5: the founding fathers intended it to be a government buying
Speaker 5: for the people, not a government for corporations.
Speaker 1: In one percent, explain to us a little bit about
Speaker 1: what your state looks like. It's a red state, but
Speaker 1: explain to us sort of what the path is.
Speaker 5: It is a red state. But you know, there is
Speaker 5: no Democrat in my race, so it's making it very interesting.
Speaker 5: But most people I go out to, my broad stroke
Speaker 5: message is, you know, getting the corporations out of our politics.
Speaker 5: I tell everybody. Robin Williams, a comedian, said it best
Speaker 5: when he said, our politicians should be wearing Nascar jackets
Speaker 5: with patches of their sponsors so we know how they're
Speaker 5: going to vote. And Senator Fisher, we actually made up
Speaker 5: a Nascar jacket for her with all patches that I
Speaker 5: take with me to the debates because she refuses to debate,
Speaker 5: so we hold them anyway when we just have her
Speaker 5: jacket there. But it's resonating with everybody. It doesn't matter
Speaker 5: whether you're a Republican or Democrat. I think Nebraska's got
Speaker 5: a pretty big independent spirit. You know, we boast having
Speaker 5: a nonpartisan unicameral for our state legislature so people are
Speaker 5: used to independence. There's over three hundred thousand registered independence
Speaker 5: in Nebraska. It's the fastest growing demographic of young people
Speaker 5: registering to vote. So where we're at, people are just
Speaker 5: you know, they're becoming fed up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, explain to us what your opponent. She said she
Speaker 1: was only going to run two terms. This is her
Speaker 1: third term. She used to had a lot of promises
Speaker 1: that she hasn't been able to fulfill or chosen not
Speaker 1: to write.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Correct, Yeah, she signed a pledge to run for twos.
Speaker 5: You know, she's bad on rail Nebraska is a huge
Speaker 5: railroad state. We have the biggest rail yard in the
Speaker 5: world in North Platte, Nebraska. We just had another derailment,
Speaker 5: our fifth the railment in just over two months. She
Speaker 5: consistently votes against the Rail Safety Act, and she actually
Speaker 5: headed the Transportation committee that allowed railroads to police their
Speaker 5: own safety right.
Speaker 1: Never a good sign.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and they actually have a certain level of death
Speaker 5: as acceptable in their safety programs. So it's four of
Speaker 5: her top eleven donors are Class one railroads. So you
Speaker 5: know she takes their money and consistently votes against the workers.
Speaker 1: She also said she wasn't going to run for reelection,
Speaker 1: but has changed her mind, right right, Explain that to us.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, I would put it to again, going
Speaker 5: back to the founding fathers, the framers of the Constitution.
Speaker 5: It was this government was meant to come from your
Speaker 5: farms and your factories. Do a term or two and
Speaker 5: go back. These days, you know, we have people going
Speaker 5: into their nineties, they've done their whole career. Dev Fisher's
Speaker 5: been in politics longer than my campaign manager has been alive.
Speaker 5: People are seeing that. People are frustrated with it, especially
Speaker 5: the fact that you know, her whole is based off
Speaker 5: of a lie. That's certainly something that gets brought up
Speaker 5: a lot when I'm doing town halls. I've done over
Speaker 5: one hundred and thirty publicly advertised town halls since twenty seventeen.
Speaker 5: She hasn't done one since twenty seventeen. People are seeing
Speaker 5: that as well. I think she feels like she doesn't
Speaker 5: have to.
Speaker 1: Are you connecting with people? And how is it going
Speaker 1: through this state? I mean, I feel like the city
Speaker 1: is different than the rest of the state, right, I
Speaker 1: mean what does the state look like?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so, Omaha and Lincoln make up about half the
Speaker 5: population and the other half spread Oh, Wow spread out
Speaker 5: through the rest of the state, so I was concerned
Speaker 5: how people were going to receive me as I traveled
Speaker 5: to the Panhandle and the western part of the state.
Speaker 5: But I'm pleasantly surprised because I relate to them on
Speaker 5: a level that you know, I've worked in a factory
Speaker 5: for twenty years. I know what it's like to put
Speaker 5: in eight, twelve, sixteen hour days and come home and
Speaker 5: your feet hurt, your hands hurt, your back hurts, everything hurts.
Speaker 2: And a lot of these.
Speaker 5: People in Nebraska are just just like me. They're just
Speaker 5: hard work people that don't want to get taxed to
Speaker 5: death and want some affordable groceries, maybe put some money
Speaker 5: aside for their kids's college things like that. So it's
Speaker 5: been nice. And you know, and again, I've always worked
Speaker 5: sixty seventy hours a week, so I've never got out
Speaker 5: to see my state in the capacity that I'm doing.
Speaker 5: So now I've never got to go to the state
Speaker 5: Fair or this thing called Wayne Chicken Days and all
Speaker 5: the things throughout throughout the state. I've really fell in
Speaker 5: love with it and the people in it. It's been great.
Speaker 1: It's interesting to me, Like one of the things Democrats
Speaker 1: have had a really hard time with is connecting with
Speaker 1: voters who you know, work in factories or work with
Speaker 1: their hands. The AD has been a group that used
Speaker 1: to reliably vote Democratic, and Trump has made real inroads
Speaker 1: with that group of white voters. And it seems counterintuitive
Speaker 1: because a lot of it is, you know, Trump wants
Speaker 1: to take away your healthcare, wants to lower taxes for billionaires,
Speaker 1: and somehow people are voting for that. What do you
Speaker 1: think the secret is to like explaining to people just
Speaker 1: what Democrats have to offer to them.
Speaker 5: I don't get into much about Republican democrat when I'm
Speaker 5: out at my events. We just focus on issues and policies.
Speaker 1: But a lot of the Republican policies aren't so good
Speaker 1: for working people.
Speaker 5: My public town hall events, we talk about policies, and
Speaker 5: what I'm finding is we agree as a people on
Speaker 5: ninety percent if not more, on issues and policies. Sometimes
Speaker 5: we don't always agree on necessarily how to get there,
Speaker 5: but it's definitely been given me out for the future.
Speaker 5: We are not as divide as media would lead us
Speaker 5: to believe, at least That's what I'm seeing on the ground.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, definitely true. Talk to me about when you
Speaker 1: talk to people on the ground there, what are they
Speaker 1: most concerned with?
Speaker 5: I'd say top three in the economy slash inflation. Second
Speaker 5: would be border border security as well as you know,
Speaker 5: having some meaning immigration reform. And the third and that's interesting,
Speaker 5: you know, you think why Nebraska would care about that.
Speaker 5: It's a huge meat packing state, so we have to
Speaker 5: have a lot of immigrants working in those meat packing facilities.
Speaker 5: And then the third, you know, the thirds probably I
Speaker 5: suppose a toss up individual liberties. Protecting individual liberties is
Speaker 5: important to people. Real people certainly don't like government mandates.
Speaker 5: And then anywhere else, depending on the room, you know, education, healthcare,
Speaker 5: things like that fall in line.
Speaker 1: On the ground. Do you hear people remembering what Trump
Speaker 1: was like or do you think they still feel like
Speaker 1: he's an outsider? Yeah?
Speaker 5: I think I think people remember for the most part,
Speaker 5: and there's people whose main concern for whatever that reason,
Speaker 5: on the border, they tend to lean towards Trump or
Speaker 5: his outward stance. I suppose on securing the border. There's
Speaker 5: plenty of farmers who especially Soy being farmers who are
Speaker 5: still hurting from the Trump tariffs, right, you know, they
Speaker 5: see the danger in tariffs. I tend not to dive
Speaker 5: too much into the top of the ticket. I'm certainly
Speaker 5: focused on my race. You know, I'm going to have
Speaker 5: to work with whoever gets elected as president. So you know,
Speaker 5: Nebraska's probably going to come in sixty to fifty eight percent,
Speaker 5: sixty percent for Trump again, I would assume like they
Speaker 5: did last time, and everybody has their own reasons.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Though, that's a really good point about the tariffs
Speaker 1: and the soybean farmers, because what percentage of your state
Speaker 1: is so you have me packing, I mean, the big
Speaker 1: businesses in the state are wide.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's mostly agriculture related. And then if you get
Speaker 5: into Omaha and Lincoln, you have a lot of manufacturing
Speaker 5: there as well. So yeah, i'd say agriculture manufacturing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and soybing. A lot of these farmers were affected
Speaker 1: by tariffs, and then they were given financial help from
Speaker 1: the government, but a lot of farmers don't like that, right.
Speaker 5: Farmers do not like that because it's you know, it
Speaker 5: cuts into their bottom line and going out. And that's
Speaker 5: what I talk to farmers every day, and we talk
Speaker 5: about how both parties seemingly are kicking the can down
Speaker 5: the road on court shoes and the farm bill. The
Speaker 5: farm bell is going to expire again on September thirtieth,
Speaker 5: and if we can't come to an agreement on the
Speaker 5: farm bill, the farmers are going to continue to suffer.
Speaker 5: You know, bushel prices are going to remain stagnant. And
Speaker 5: you know, we have to keep our farmers profitable. That
Speaker 5: goes with teachers and nursing too. If we can't keep
Speaker 5: these people profitable, they're not going to do it anymore,
Speaker 5: plain and simple, and probably around two or less than
Speaker 5: two percent of our population in this country feeds the
Speaker 5: rest of us. So we got to make it profitable.
Speaker 5: We have to keep it sustainable with the environment. We
Speaker 5: have to keep it sustainable with the crops and the
Speaker 5: meats as far as being safe to eat, and they're
Speaker 5: the third thing about being sustainable is they have to
Speaker 5: be profitable. And so we have to update our crop insurance.
Speaker 5: And I think we need update our crop insurance to
Speaker 5: help benefit smaller family farms because that's starting to go
Speaker 5: away too. It's favoring the corporate farmer. We've got a
Speaker 5: lot of work to do and we can't keep playing
Speaker 5: politics with things like this is dangerous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I also think that the fact that the farm
Speaker 1: bell is really bad, that that has not been addressed,
Speaker 1: that they've been waiting around on that. Do people make
Speaker 1: the connection when you're out there talking to farmers between
Speaker 1: climate change and farming.
Speaker 5: You know, we sit on the Oglalla Aquifer here in
Speaker 5: this state, a huge aquifer of fresh water, and studies
Speaker 5: are indicating that it's lowering the amount of water. So
Speaker 5: that's alarming to say the least. I think at the
Speaker 5: end of the day, whether you know a farmer wants
Speaker 5: to put solar or wind on his farm or not,
Speaker 5: they all agree we need to be we need to
Speaker 5: be pursuing everything to eventually get off of fossil fuels.
Speaker 5: And obviously it can't happen immediately, but the end result
Speaker 5: of climate change is going to be droughts. And if
Speaker 5: you're having drought and you can't can wattery, then you
Speaker 5: can't grow stuff, you can't feed livestock, and that's starvation.
Speaker 5: So it's it's pretty important. I think most everybody you know,
Speaker 5: unless they don't believe in it, sees the value of
Speaker 5: trying to do anything we can to get ahead of it.
Speaker 1: If you're a farmer, you must believe in it right
Speaker 1: because it's happening or not necessarily.
Speaker 5: Not necessarily, it depends, it goes. I try to talk
Speaker 5: to everybody as consumers of media. It's difficult. It's difficult
Speaker 5: to be a consumer of media. For example, I was
Speaker 5: in North Platte, Nebraska when President Trump got convicted of
Speaker 5: thirty nine counts. I actually crossed a time zone that
Speaker 5: morning or that day before, so I actually had an
Speaker 5: extra hour before i'd get to an event. So I
Speaker 5: watched thirty minutes of Fox News on it and then
Speaker 5: I watched thirty minutes of either MSNBC or CNN, can't
Speaker 5: remember which. But the thirty minutes I was watching a
Speaker 5: Fox News, I was like, man, this guy's getting a
Speaker 5: raw deal. They're after him. I switched to the next
Speaker 5: news channel and I was like, man, this guy's guilty,
Speaker 5: you know, But where's the truth?
Speaker 1: Lie?
Speaker 5: Is he getting headhunted or or is he guilty?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 5: And so you have to find news sources and you know,
Speaker 5: podcasts like this where people are speaking freely and not
Speaker 5: paid for by Murdoch or somebody else, and find the truth.
Speaker 5: But it's difficult. And then you throw in, you know,
Speaker 5: you throw in social media people are irresponsible. They'll see
Speaker 5: something they don't even click open it, and they won't
Speaker 5: even read it or fact check it, and they'll just
Speaker 5: repost it.
Speaker 1: It's kind of scary, yeah, I mean, I also think
Speaker 1: that the more people can just see stuff that is
Speaker 1: real people talking, like c Span, where they can just
Speaker 1: listen to the actual people talking, the better off they
Speaker 1: are at making decisions. You were also in the army
Speaker 1: and the navy.
Speaker 5: YEP Nebraska Army National Guard than.
Speaker 1: The Navy arm services are having trouble recruiting thoughts.
Speaker 5: That's twofold. Seventy two percent of our military age males
Speaker 5: are unfit to serve. And that goes back to what
Speaker 5: we feed ourselves. My wife and I did this food
Speaker 5: trading deal, you know where you trade food with other countries,
Speaker 5: and we traded food. I remember with Australia one time,
Speaker 5: and we got the packaging from Australia and there.
Speaker 4: Is no there.
Speaker 5: Mac and cheese was like macaroni and cheese, nothing fake
Speaker 5: or you know, colored. And so what we're feeding our
Speaker 5: population is certainly partly to blame. And secondly, you know,
Speaker 5: ultimately it's a business. You have to pay people, and
Speaker 5: you have to pay them a fair wage, otherwise they're
Speaker 5: not going to want.
Speaker 2: To do it.
Speaker 5: Same with you have one soldier on food stamps, you're
Speaker 5: doing it wrong. We have to figure out how to
Speaker 5: better pay our airmen and sailors and soldiers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, agreed, agreed, agreed, Thank you so much, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 6: No moment, Jesse Canon, you know by you mentioned at
Speaker 6: the top of the show, this guy bark rothtson. I
Speaker 6: like to think of Mark Robinson as the greatest gift
Speaker 6: to Democrats aside from Trump's setup picks. But the second
Speaker 6: greatest gift to Democrats is JD Vance.
Speaker 2: JD.
Speaker 1: I don't care if they're here legally or not. Vance
Speaker 1: just wants you to know that even if you have
Speaker 1: a greeden card, he and Donald Trump may decide to
Speaker 1: deport you. Look, man, there are a couple of really
Speaker 1: bad Donald Trump picks. Bernie Marino in the great state
Speaker 1: of Ohio. We got in Pennsylvania McCormick running again and
Speaker 1: losing or at least polling like he's losing. We just
Speaker 1: have a lot. And then Mark Robinson in North Carolina,
Speaker 1: who has an OPO file. The size of the iliad
Speaker 1: was more to come and so these incredible candidates showing
Speaker 1: us that trump Ism doesn't scale. That is our moment
Speaker 1: of fuck Ray. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics.
Speaker 1: Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to hear the
Speaker 1: best minds in politics makes sense of all this chaos.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send it to
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Speaker 1: for listening.